This section includes articles (by authors with last names L through R) from magazines and newspapers. In some cases I have provided extensive excerpts from these documents if not the full text. My intent is to provide greater access to available published information about LaFaro. In most cases the original journals in which these articles first appeared are now buried in library microfilm collections and not readily accessible.
Some articles are in French. I apologize for not translating them at this time (a project on my list for the near future) but anyone with a modicum of language skill will be able to decipher the gist of what is being said. Jean-Pierre Binchet's 'Le Phare LaFaro' is the best critical commentary yet on LaFaro.
Table of Contents
LaFaro-
Fernandez“Scott LaFaro: A Chronological Discography” Bass World: . . . (Fall 1996) Levitt "Du Temps de LaFaro" Jazz Magazine (fevrier 1980) Lees “Inside the New Bill Evans Trio” Down Beat (November 22, 1962) Marmande “Rocco et Ses Freres” Jazz Magazine (avril 1975) Monti “Discographie de Scott LaFaro” Jazz 360 (octobre 1979) Nelson "Bill Evans: Intellect, Emotion, and Communication" Down Beat (Dec. 8, 1960) Nelson "Don Friedman: A Pianist For All Seasons" Down Beat (October 22, 1964) Pekar “The Development of Modern Bass” Down Beat (October 11, 1962) Roberts “A Classic Revisited: . . . Sunday at the Village Vanguard” Bass Player (Dec 1995)
LaFaro-Fernandez, Helene. “Scott LaFaro: A Chronological Discography” Bass World: The Journal of the International Society of Bassists, vol. XXI, no. 2 (Fall 1996), pp. 23-24. Includes photograph of LaFaro.
A listing of recordings and transcriptions by Scott LaFaro's oldest sister, Helene, who accompanied him on many of his performances in Los Angeles and New York. List follows:
- Let's Have A Dance Party / Buddy Morrow & His Orchestra.
RCA Camden CAL 381 1956- Shorty Tunes / Buddy Morrow & His Orchestra.
Standard Radio Transcription Services Inc. ST 1039 A & B,
Chicago IL 1956- Assorted Flavors of Pacific Jazz / Hi Fi Sampler with Chet Baker
Pacific Jazz Enterprises S 650 HFS-1
Hollywood CA 1957- Live Date / Buddy De Franco
Verve MGV 8383
Los Angeles CA August 1957- This is Pat Moran
Audio Fidelity AFLP 1875 [AFSD 5875]
New York NY 1957- The Legendary Scott LaFaro
Audio Fidelity Chicago December 1957
Re-release [of This is Pat Moran] by Teichiku Record Company Ltd, UXB-106-AF
Japan 30 May 1978- Beverly Kelly Sings with the Pat Moran Trio
Audio Fidelity AFLP 1874 [AFSD 5874] UXP 68
Chicago IL December 1957 [released 1958]- Stan Getz with Cal Tjader
Fantasy 0902-046 1957- The Arrival of Victor Feldman
Contemporary M-3549 and S-7549
Vogue [British] LAC 12172- Cal Tjader -- Stan Getz Sextet
Fantasy LP 3266 LPS-8005
Vogue [British] LAE 557- Jazz At ANA [Army & Navy Academy] / All Star Concert
Presented by the Class of 1958
?Los Angeles 1958- For Real / Hampton Hawes Quartet
Contemporary M-3589 S-7589
Vogue [British] 12295
Contemporary (F) CHTX 240 762
Los Angeles CA 17 Mar 58- Stan Getz
Prestige PR 24019
?place 1958- West Coast Days / Joe Gordon & Scott LaFaro
Fresh Sound records FSCD 1030
Camarillo Music Ltd, Switzerland 1992 (rec 1958)- Latinsville / Victor Feldman
Contemporary M-5005 S-9005
Vocalion-British LAC 580
Los Angeles CA 3 Mar 59- The Broadway Bit / Marty Paich Orchestra
Warner Bros. WB 1296 WBE-WEP 6032 WSE 3032
Los Angeles CA early 1959- Gypsy / Herb Geller Quartet
Atco 33-109
New York NY 21 May 1959- Sung Heros / Tony Scott
Sunnyside SSC-1015
New York NY 1959- Portrait in Jazz / Bill Evans Trio
Riverside RLP-12-125, RSLP-1162, RM (S)-3518
New York NY 28 Dec 59- Spring Leaves / Bill Evans Trio
Milestone 47034
28 Dec 59 and 2 Feb 61- Bill Evans Trio
Alto AL-719
New York NY 12 Mar 60, 19 Mar 60, 30 Apr 60.- Bill Evans Trio
Session 113
New York NY 19 Mar 60, 20 Apr 60, 07 May 60.- Bill Evans Trio and John Handy Quintet
Ozone 20
New York NY 07 May 60- Booker Little
Time [Records] 52011, S-2011, ULS-1802-V
New York NY 11 Jul 60 note: 13 and 15 Apr 60 (?)- Pies For Guitter and Strings
New York NY 19 Dec 60- Jazz Abstractions / Gunther Schuller Orchestra
Atlantic LP (SD) 1465, Atlantic [France] 58 7043, 580043
New York NY 19 and 20 Dec 60- Variation on a Theme by John Lewis / Variation on a Theme by Thelonious Monk
New York NY 20 Dec 60- Free Jazz / Ornette Coleman
Atlantic LP 1364 Atlantic [France] 412008
New York NY 21 Dec 60- Free Jazz [alternate takes]
New York NY 21 Dec 60- Twins / Ornette Coleman
Atlantic LP-1588, P 8165
New York NY 21 Dec 60- Abstractions / Ornette Coleman
New York NY 1960- The Legendary Bill Evans Trio / Complete 1960 Birdland Sessions
Cool `N Blue Records C&B CD 106
Switzerland 1992- Ornette! / Ornette Coleman
Atlantic LP-1378, Atlantic [France] 850007
New York NY 31 Jan 61- Art of the Improvisers / Ornette Coleman
Atlantic SD-1572 P 8006A
New York NY 31 Jan 61- The Best of Ornette Coleman
`C & D' Atlantic SD 1558
New York NY 31 Jan 61- Explorations / Bill Evans Trio
Riverside RLP (S9) 351, 45-462, SMJ-6038
New York NY 25 Jun 61 [sic, 02 Feb 61]- Sunday At The Village Vanguard / Bill Evans Trio
Riverside RLP (S9) 376, RM (S) 3517
New York NY 25 Jun 61- Village Vanguard Sessions / Bill Evans Trio
Milestone 47002-2
New York NY 25 Jun 61- More From the Village Vanguard / Bill Evans Trio
Milestone 9125
New York NY 25 Jun 61- Waltz For Debby / Bill Evans Trio
Riverside RLP (S9) 399
New York NY 25 Jun 61- Live At the Village Vanguard / Bill Evans
RS 3006
New York NY 25 Jun 61- Stan Getz Special / Newport Jazz Festival
Audio Fidelity UXP-106-AF
Newport RI 03 Jul 61- Interpretations by the Stan Getz Quartet
Norgran Records MGN-1000 A (10,478 and 10,479)
Jazz At The Philharmonic, Inc. (JATP)- Stan Getz
Fantasy 3348 F-2215
? Feb 63- Bill Evans / Master Pianist
BOMR [Book of the Month Recording] Compilation Stereo 61-7722
? 1983- The Complete Riverside Recordings / Bill Evans
Riverside RCD-01802
? 1993Levitt, Al. "Du Temps de La Faro" Jazz Magazine #283 (fevrier 1980) 2 pp. "unpaged."
A memoir by American ex-patriate jazz drummer Al Levitt which includes some interesting comments regarding his meeting and playing with Scott LaFaro. In 1955, Levitt while working with pianist Paul Bley and bassist Jimmy Bond, he recalled seeing LaFaro carrying his bass into the same hotel where Levitt was staying. It seems that LaFaro, for only one night, was playing in the Dan Terry [and the Band with the Hi-Fi Sound]. A year later in 1956, Levitt was in Paris (he stayed until 1958) and living in the midst of several other jazz musicians -- Donald Byrd, Bobby Jaspar, Walter Davis Jr, Arthur Taylor, Doug Watkins -- who played frequently at the cellar club Le Chat Qui Peche. Levitt and Watkins returned to New York in November 1958 on the last voyage of the Ile de France. On board the luxury liner were musicians J.C. Heard, Doc Cheatham and Sammy Price.
Levitt worked in and around New York, Boston and Washing, DC with many other musicians: Toshiko Akiyoshi, Charles Mariano, J. R. Monterose, pianist Hod O'Brien, singer Shirley Horne.
One evening in New York in 1959, in front of Birdland, Levitt ran into Herb Geller and was introduced to Scott LaFaro. Levitt asked LaFaro if they had not met before, and LaFaro reminded him of the time they met the lobby of a hotel in Baltimore when he was with the Dan Terry band. Geller, who was working at the time with a big band, possibly Louis Bellson's, had to get back to the gig. LaFaro and Levitt went to a nearby coffee house, talked for awhile, and then went around the corner to the Hickory House where the Pat Moran Trio was performing (with drummer Gene Gammage and bassist John Doling ). LaFaro had told Levitt that it was possible that the two of them could sit in ('faire le boeuf') during the last set of the evening. For Levitt this was the first time he had heard LaFaro and it was the first time they had played together.
During the time in New York, Levitt says, 'I ran into Scotty quite often and we went to the clubs to listen or to sit it, and we also practiced either at his pad or mine. I remember one evening at Birdland when I played with Scotty, Herb Geller, Booker Little, and Kenny Drew. Also, it is interesting to note some musicians and music that Scotty liked to get an idea of possible influences on LaFaro.
LaFaro often listened to Bela Bartok (le Mandarin Merveilleux and all of the string quartets); Charles Ives; and Zoltan Kodaly (his Suite for Violincello recorded by Janos Starker). In jazz, LaFaro loved Miles Davis, especially his work with Gill Evans; Stan Getz, Chet Baker, and Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers (the Lee Morgan / Benny Golson edition). LaFaro was impressed with pianist Martial Solal's recordings. Also with Booker Little and George Coleman when these musicians were working with Max Roach. His favorite bassists were Charles Mingus and Paul Chambers and he loved the work of drummer Elvin Jones with whom he hoped to play one day.
LaFaro was particularly impressed with pianist Bill Evans, especially with the appearance of the recording, Everybody Digs Bill Evans. "Scotty [Levitt says] loved Bill's playing and every time Scotty was near a piano he would play Evans' composition 'Peace Piece.'" LaFaro had high praise for the musicians he worked with in California: Don Friedman and Nick Martinis, and also fellow bassists Charlie Haden and Gary Peacock.
LaFaro liked the David Allen recording Sure Thing with arrangements by Johnny Mandel, which included a marvelous version of 'The Folks who Lived on the Hill' and the compositions of Tommy Wolf and Fran Landesman, particularly 'Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most', which Scotty sang one day in front of the Colony Music store on the corner of 52d Street and Broadway.'" * * *
Lees, Gene. “Inside the New Bill Evans Trio” Down Beat, November 22, 1962, pp. 24-26. Illustrated.
Discusses the trio with Chuck Israels as bassist with reference to the late Scott LaFaro.
Quoting Paul Motian: “In the latter part of 1959, he [Evans] went into Basin Street East. He had a lot of trouble, and he changed rhythm sections several times. . . . On drums he had Philly Joe Jones for a few nights and Kenny Dennis for a few more and me. He must have gone through about eight bass players.
“Scott LaFaro was working at a club around the corner. I'd first heard him some time previously, when Chet Baker was forming a group. Chet called me and Bill, and we worked out. I wasn't too impressed by Scott's playing at that time. Anyway, Scott used to come around to Basin Street East and sit it with Bill. And [then] I was impressed.”
“From Basin Street East, we went to the Showplace, with Scott. That was actually the beginning.”
“It's hard to describe what Scott's death last year [6 July 1961] did to us. Bill telephoned me. I was sleeping. It seemed like a dream, what he told me, and I went back to sleep. When I woke up, I was convinced it was a dream. I called Bill back, and he told me it was true.”
“When it began to sink in, we ... we didn't know what to do. We didn't know if we'd still have a trio. We'd reached such a peak with Scott, such freedom. It seemed that everything was becoming possible.”
“We didn't work for six months -- between the last two weeks of June 1961, until Christmas. Then we went to Syracuse, N.Y., to work a gig. Chuck Israels went with us on bass.”
Marmande, Francis. “Rocco et Ses Freres,” Jazz Magazine 232 (avril 1975), pp. [26]-29. Includes photograph. Discussion of LaFaro, Charlie Haden, Charles Mingus, Monk Montgomery, David Holland, Eberhard Weber, Stanley Clarke, Barre Phillips, Harry Miller, Maarten Van Regteren Altenat.
“Rocco Scott LaFaro: les bassistes aujourd'hui ne parlent que de lui, et on oublie toujours qu'il avait choisi l'instrument pour des raisons bassement familiales. Avant, il avait etudie le tenor et la clarinette. Mais pour repondre, selon J.-P. Binchet, `a une plaisanterie de son pere qui, violoniste et leader d'un petit groupe', le persuadait de `jouer en famille', il se mit a la basse. Familialistes patentes, psychologistes de tous poils, a vos plumes; vous decouvrirez aussi que la basse a le corps de maman et la voix de papa. Et vous plongerez dans d'insondables profondeurs en apprenant que Scotty dut un de ses premiers engagements au plus feminin des trompettistes (s'il s'agit de la voix), Chet Baker (cf. `Le phare La Faro' in Jazzmag 153, avril 68).
“A part ca, ce fut un travailleur forcene: et l'on sait que le monde leur appartient, meme s'ils se levent tard. Genealogistes des rapports secrets, sachez encore qu'il est mort au bout d'une dizaine de disques, vingt-cinq ans trois mois, juste apres avoir rendu visite a sa mere. Son professeur, ce fut surtout le juke-box de l'Embassy Club de Syracuse, `Un musicien sans passe', dirait de lui Binchet. Il avait une certaine maniere d'inventer la liberte et de mourir tout de suite apres.
Jimmy Blanton, Scott LaFaro, Al Stinson: tous trois, ils sont morts tres jeunes, sans qu'on puisse en tirer la moindre conclusion.”
Re: Ornette Coleman, `Free Jazz': “D'un cote, LaFaro, la technique feroce, la phrase brulante; de l'autre [Charlie] Haden, la melodie profonde, lyrique, vibree. . . .
“Il y aurait d'ailleurs autant d'injustice a fantasmer le dialogue des bassistes dans `Free Jazz' qu'a retourner ce faux debat contre LaFaro: son chant, avec Bill Evans, est d'une telle sensualite qu'il n'ya qu'hypothese d'ecole a lui `opposer' Haden. Mais les heritiers de LaFaro ont parfois autant poursuivi sa technique qu'ils ont limite son efficace. On s'en remettra.�
. . .
Re: technique: “Depuis LaFaro, on `tire' communement avec l'index et le medius. L'amplification permet de disperser cette force que l'on concentrait, avant, dans l'index.
“Le contrabasse ne fait plus doum-doum-doum. Ce temps est depuis belle lurette revolu ou ses chorus etaient mis a profit par les conversations intimes, anodines ou erudites, bref par toutes les formes du discours amoureux. Le comble en sera pour toujours designe dans les enregistrements (pirates) de Scott LaFaro avec Bill Evans au Village Vanguard: des la primiere de ses lignes monstrueuses de notes, reprennent bavardages, train-train, tintinnabulements de glacons dans les verres de bourbon et rires fous ... Personnel ne semble se soucier de lui, et je me demand si ce n'est pas un peu desinvolte.”
Monti, Pierre-Andre. “Discographie de Scott LaFaro” Jazz 360 [degrees] [France] No. 21 (octobre 1979) pp. 9-13.
Provides detailed information about recordings LaFaro made with Buddy DeFranco, Pat Moran, Victor Feldman, Stan Getz, Hampton Hawes, Booker Little, Marty Paich, Herb Geller, Gunther Schuller, as well as recordings with Evans and Coleman.
Provides thumbnail sketch of LaFaro's life with reference to other authors:
Andre Clergeat in Dictionnaire du Jazz (Seghers)
Frank Tenot in Dictionnaire du Jazz (Larousse)Nelson, Don. "Bill Evans: Intellect, Emotion, and Communication" Down Beat 27:25 (December 8, 1960) pp. 16-18.
In his inaugural article for Down Beat, Don Nelson, writer for the New York News with a Master's in Medieval Literature, provides us with a portrait of the pianist as a well-rounded, well-read, normal individual who happens to be a jazz pianist. Nelson lists several of the authors of books in Evans' two book cases (Freud, Whitehead, Margaret Meade, Santayana, Mohammed) and describes his bourgeois Manhattan apartment as a "three-room piece of ordinary" with its single bed, a few chairs, a kitchen table, hi-fi set, television (to get the sports news), and a piano which takes up half the living room. Some of Evans' comments:
On Zen and Jazz and Feeling:
"I was interested in Zen long before the big boom [of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsburg, and others in the mid-1950s]. I found out about it just after I got out of the army in 1954. A friend of mine had met Aldous Huxley while crossing from England, and Huxley told him that Zen was worth investigating. I'd been looking into philosophy generally so I decided to see what Zen had to say. But literature on it was almost impossible to find. Finally, I was able to locate some material at the Philosophical library in Manhattan. Now you can get the stuff in any drugstore. // Actually, I'm not interested in Zen that much, as a philosophy, nor in joining any movements. I don't pretend to understand it. I just find it comforting. And very similar to jazz. Like jazz, you can't explain it to anyone without losing the experience. It's got to be experienced, because it's feeling, not words. Words are the children of reason and, therefore, can't explain it. They really can't translate feeling because they're not part of it. That's why it bugs me when people try to analyze jazz as an intellectual theorem. It's not. It's feeling."
On Influences:
"A guy is influenced by hundreds of people and things, ... and all show up in his work. To fasten on any one or two is ridiculous. I will say one thing, though. Lennie Tristano's early records impressed me tremendously. Tunes like Tautology, Marshmallow, and Fishin' Around. I heard the fellows in his group building their lines with a design and general structure that was different from anything I'd ever heard in jazz. I think I was impressed by Lee (Konitz) and Warne (Marsh) more than by Lennie, although he was probably the germinal influence. I guess it was the way Lee and Warne put things together that impressed me."
On William Blake's art:
"He's almost like a folk poet, but he reaches heights of art because of his simplicity. The simple things, the essences, are the great things, but our way of expressing them can be incredibly complex. It's the same thing with technique in music. You try to express a simple emotion -- love, excitement, sadness -- and often your technique gets in the way. It becomes an end in itself when it should really be only the funnel through which your feelings and ideas are communicated. The great artist gets right to the heart of the matter. His technique is so natural it's invisible or unhearable. I've always had good facility, and that worries me. I hope it doesn't get in the way."
On his Army experience and its effect on his Piano playing:
"I took everything personally, because I thought I (emphasis is Evans') was wrong. ... I was attacked by some guys for what I believed and by musicians who claimed I should play like this pianist or that. Pretty soon I lost the confidence I had as a kid. I began to think that everything I did was wrong. Now I'm back to where I was before I went into the Army. I don't give much of a damn now what anybody thinks. I'll do what I think should be done."
On his Trio (with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian):
"As a leader it's my role to give direction to the group .. and Paul and Scott have indicated that they are more comfortable in the trio than anywhere else. Does a group get stale? It all depends on whether there is continuing stimulation, whether all the musicians concerned want to share each other's progress. As for myself, I want to grow, but I don't want to force it. I want to play as good as I can, not necessarily as different. I am not interested in consciously changing the essence of my music. I would rather have it reveal itself progressively as I play. Ultimately, what counts is its essential quality, anyway, and differences vanish in a short time.
"What is most important is not the style itself but how you are developing that style and how well you can play within it. You can definitely be more creative exploring specific things within a style. Sometimes Paul, Scott, and I play the same tune over and over again. Occasionally, everything falls in right, and we think it's sensational. Of course, it may not mean much to a listener at the time, but, then, most people in clubs don't listen closely anyway."
Nelson concludes his article on Evans with the remark: "Up until now, the trio has been a unit for many months and acceptance is, in general, high. The fellows are not playing as many gigs as they might wish, but they are not starving. Evans himself puts no restrictions on the type of club they'll work. 'We'll play anywhere that people will listen,' he said. "That should be just about everywhere."
Nelson, Don. "Don Friedman: A Pianist For All Seasons" Down Beat (October 22, 1964) pp. [17]-18, ff.
A discussion of the San Francisco-born jazz pianist who shared an apartment with Scott LaFaro in New York City and who made a (then unreleased) recording that included LaFaro on bass.
At p. 18: Outside, by the front door, a mailbox nameplate identifies the source of the sounds he makes as the Friedman-LaFaro apartment. The LaFaro is Scott, the muse-touched young bassist who died in an auto accident three years ago. The two, close friends, shared these quarters for about a year after LaFaro had arrived from Los Angeles. Friedman has never bothered to take the nameplate down.
'I just wanted Scotty's name up somewhere.' he [Friedman] said.
With these two fertile imaginations in close communication, the question arises as to whether either exercised any influence on the other. 'Influence' is, of course, a term indispensable to the critical lexicon, and hardly an article can be written without it. Friedman took the question with good grace, however. His answer was that he really couldn't be certain.
'I do know that I picked up on his [LaFaro's] way of voicing chords,' Friedman said. 'He had a particularly beautiful way of voicing half-diminished chords. Other than that, I don't know. I do feel -- although again I don't know -- that in the last part of his life he might have been influenced by my thinking too. I know that he got very interested in Schoenberg, Bartok, and Berg, things he wasn't into before. But I really don't know how much of a part I played in his thinking in this direction.'
Pekar, Harvey. “The Development of Modern Bass,” Down Beat (October 11, 1962) pp. 19-21. Includes photograph by Jim Marshall. LaFaro and Charlie Haden compared and contrasted mainly at pp. 20-21. LaFaro excerpt follows:
Thus far the most important new bassists of the `60s seem to be the late Scott LaFaro and Charlie Haden. Not surprisingly, both worked with Ornette Coleman. Playing with Coleman presents a challenge to a bassist for his music often doesn't follow present chord progressions.
To anticipate and react accordingly to Coleman's ideas are considerable accomplishments. The bassist in a Coleman combo has an unprecedented influence on the soloist because of the great freedom he is given.
Theoretically, it would seem that Coleman believes the bass to have almost as important a melodic function in his group as the trumpet or alto saxophone. He has spoken of `our concept of free group improvisation' and called Haden a `melodically independent' bassist. Spontaneous counterpoint sometimes arises between the horns and the bass in his group.
Despite the fact that Haden and LaFaro had widely different backgrounds and, in some respects, playing styles, each met the challenge of Coleman's music admirably.
LaFaro grew up in Geneva, N. Y. He began playing clarinet at 14 and a few years later took up bass. He attended Ithaca Conservatory but, by his own admission, did not become interested in jazz until 195304 `54. In 1955 he joined buddy Morrow's band and by 1958 had joined Sonny Rollins. But it was not until the young bassist joined the Bill Evans Trio that he attracted wide attention. Although Evans's improvising followed predetermined chord or scale patterns, he, too, allowed LaFaro much freedom.
The rapport between the two was uncanny even on their first LP together, `Portrait in Jazz' (Riverside 1162). Examples of this near telepathy are the beautifully meshing interplay and trading between bass and piano on “Autumn Leaves” and “Blue in Green”. On the latter composition, much of the time LaFaro doesn't employ conventional bass lines. He plays obbligatos in accompanying Evans as a horn man might play behind a singer.
Already a fine musician when 'Portrait in Jazz' was recorded, LaFaro seemed to improve with each subsequent album. His role in the trio had expanded by the time the albums `Waltz for Debby' and `Sunday at the Village Vanguard' were made. He and Evans carried on contrapuntal dialogs (though Evans is clearly the lead voice), and even when accompanying, LaFaro didn't limit himself to one particular pattern: he might play two quarter notes in one bar and superimpose a rhythmic figure containing 16th, dotted eighth, and quarter notes over the beat in the next one.
Some of LaFaro's solos on the `Waltz' and `Village Vanguard' albums are astounding. He brought off dazzling double-time passages and made forays into the upper register that few bassists would even attempt.
His improvising is reminiscent of John Coltrane's because he was seemingly more concerned with harmonic and rhythmic exploration than with over-all construction. At slow tempos he often opened a phrase with 16th notes rather than building to them with longer tones. He varied his lines with triplet series. At times his playing suggests the human voice, and the passion with which he played is almost overpowering.
LaFaro made two records with Coleman. On the first, `free jazz' (Atlantic 1364), Coleman employed a double rhythm section -- two bassists and two drummers. This album created controversy, but reviewers were unanimous in their praise of the fascinating work of LaFaro and Haden.
The first section of LaFaro's solo is harmonically stagnant, like much Middle eastern music; he employs guitar-like trills and runs. The second section lies closer to the jazz mainstream; Haden's walking accompaniment implied simple harmonies. Over this LaFaro played typically striking multi-noted passages.
LaFaro also appears on the Coleman album `Ornette' (Atlantic 1378). He's brilliant in the rhythm section, using simple repeated figures to excellent effect in building tension under the soloists and following these figures with strong walking lines to relax the tension.
Possibly the most interesting single feature of his work on this album, however, is the arco solo on “C & D”, an example of Third Stream music that comes off well. He was influenced here by contemporary classical music seemingly, but even so improvises. . . .
LaFaro and Haden will probably be regarded as twin fountainheads of inspiration for the bassists of the new wave.”
Roberts, Jim, “A Classic Revisited: Bill Evans Trio / Sunday at the Village Vanguard,” in Bass Player (December 1995) p. 74.
Reviews LaFaro's contribution to the double bass in jazz in the context of electric bassist, Jaco Pastorius, and also LaFaro's contemporaries of the 1950s, Charles Mingus, Paul Chambers, and Wilbur Ware. Emphasizes LaFaro's lyrical quality which may derive from his having played clarinet and tenor saxophone erstwhile. Discusses LaFaro's promise as a composer and leader as exemplified in this recording and its sister album, Waltz For Debby.